


Midnight Memories

by LizAnn_5869



Series: Reunited Verse [3]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Love, Mentions of Gallifrey, Nightmares, Post-Episode: s04e10 Midnight, Rose is hybrid human/time lady, Second of a series, Supportive Rose, Telepathy, Ten and Rose are bonded, Ten and Rose are together, no Bad Wolf bay, post The Doctor the Divine and the dungeon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-14
Updated: 2018-03-14
Packaged: 2019-03-30 20:34:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13959483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LizAnn_5869/pseuds/LizAnn_5869
Summary: Post "The Doctor, the Divine and the Dungeon", Rose and the Doctor are settling into their new forever.  Rose discovers that before she came back to him, the Doctor  had an adventure that still haunts his nightmares.





	Midnight Memories

**Author's Note:**

> The first sequel to The Doctor, the Divine and the Dungeon. It really helps to have had read that one first, but if you haven’t, The Doctor and Rose are reunited, and Rose is becoming more Time Lord due to Bad Wolf and dimension hops across the void. She has many of the same abilities as the Doctor. Their lifespans match and they bonded in the final chapter of the first story.  
> Many thanks to Rose—Nebula for the beta work! You are so appreciated!

Rose slept less than than she did when she was fully human, since her newly enhanced physiology didn’t require as much rest.  She still needed sleep, although she didn’t need to, in the Doctor’s words, “waste” as much time in bed.

 

The time they spent together in their bed was most definitely not time wasted.  Every so often the Doctor would doze off with her. (Generating all that lovely heat with Rose wore him out, even if he didn’t want to admit it.). 

 

The Doctor was a restless sleeper, which seemed to go right along with his manic nature.  Rose supposed it shouldn’t have surprised her. The dimension hops had trained her to sleep under any conditions, and to wake immediately at the first sign of danger.  The Doctor moving about hardly registered with her most nights they slept together. 

 

It had been a long day, one in which their adventure had separated them.  Their telepathic bond had made it easy to find each other but both of them had had moments of panic before they reunited.  Once back home in the TARDIS, they had made love and snuggled afterwards. Relaxed, Rose and the Doctor exchanged some quiet words of love as they fell asleep in each other’s arms.

 

Rose was awakened by a moan from the Doctor. According to her developing time senses, they hadn’t been asleep for long.  She was groggy, but when the Doctor shuddered and cried out, Rose woke fully. 

 

He’d rolled away from her, and was curled up, almost in the fetal position, shaking, frightened of something chasing him in his dreams.

 

“Doctor,” she murmured, gently patting his shoulder.  The Doctor didn’t wake. “Love, what’s wrong?” she asked, a little louder this time.

 

The Doctor rolled over onto his other side, facing her.  His eyes were still closed and he was muttering in his sleep, lost in his nightmare. “Why are you repeating me.  What are you doing? Learning?”

 

“I’m not repeating you, Doctor.  What’s wrong?” Rose asked. 

 

His breathing sped up.  Rose looked up at the ceiling and at her mental request the TARDIS turned the lights up to a dim glow, enough for her to see him.

His eyes were squeezed shut, and fine beads of sweat dampened his forehead.  “No, no..stop, no……”

 

Frightened by his distress, Rose acted with newly formed instincts.  Her fingers went to his temples and she reached out telepathically, slipping into his troubled mind.

 

_ She was on some kind of….spacecraft.  Spacecraft wasn’t the right word, no…it was a transport with rows of seats.  It looked vaguely familiar, but how could that be right? She’d never been in a place like this with him.   _

 

_ Then it hit her.  She hadn’t been there, but she’d seen it, for a few seconds, during the time she’d been trying desperately to find the Doctor.  She remembered seeing him in some transport, on a monitor. His back had been to her and she’d yelled but he hadn’t heard her. Then the transmission had ended.   _

 

_ Rose had seen enough to know the Doctor had been in trouble, though.  She could tell by the tension in his body. Whatever she’d seen then was happening again, in his dreams. _

 

_ “Doctor,” she called out to him, trying to stay calm.  Everyone on the transport was in terror, or angry, or both.  A woman cowered in the corner, but her expression wasn’t frightened.  It was predatory and she was looking straight at the Doctor. Rose suddenly understood that the Doctor had been repeating the woman in the corner, and she shared his horror.  His mind was being overtaken by some entity Rose could feel but not see. At that moment the Doctor’s thoughts ceased to be linear and she was getting flashes of memory and impressions of suffocating panic and terror.  The people on the transport were turning on him. And all the while a creeping black fog insinuated itself into the edges of the scene, threatening to block out all of the Doctor’s own mind. _

 

_ Rose caught a stray thought, and surprisingly, it was of herself.  It was a fervent wish that she was by his side tinged with relief at that she wasn’t there at all.  She sought to reassure him, to be a balm for his frayed nerves. “Doctor, I’m here. S’just a nightmare.  A bad memory. Shh…” _

 

_ The Doctor startled, seeming to hear Rose in his dream.  Rose concentrated her love and comfort, relieved that he finally seemed to be responding.  She doubled down on her efforts, only to hear the Doctor shout, “No! Get out!” _

 

_ And then a door was slammed in her face _ .

 

*****

 

Rose reeled from the sudden severing of their connection, rolling onto her back.  The Doctor was sitting up now, chest heaving, not even bothering with his respiratory bypass.  Before she could speak he threw back the covers and bounded out of bed. She barely had time to register that he was still nude.  He grabbed his dressing gown and threw it on as he stalked out out the room. “Doctor!” she called after him as the bedroom door slammed.  She sighed shakily and rubbed her eyes. The shock of being shut out of the Doctor’s mind and the pure emotion radiating off of him in his dream had shaken her to her core.

 

The TARDIS brushed Rose’s consciousness then, soothing her, and sending her an impression of the Doctor.  “He needs some time, then,” Rose said, understanding. She attempted to relax, but she had a feeling that sleep would be elusive.  

 

After tossing and turning for an hour or so (she didn’t care to figure out the exact amount of time) Rose pushed the duvet off of her and crawled out of bed.  She snagged her knickers and his t-shirt off of the floor and put them on. Then she went off in search of the Doctor. 

 

*****

 

The door slammed behind him, and the Doctor prowled down the corridor. His emotions were a mess of fear and powerlessness from the dream, and anger at Rose for bursting in. _Does she not know what_ _a violation that is?  Basic telepathic etiquette, that is…”_

 

He received a mental rebuke from the TARDIS.

 

“No, she doesn’t, I know that, I know!  We haven’t discussed….” It had only been a couple days since they’d bonded. “She doesn’t understand that I would never want…..” His thoughts were jumbled up, making it difficult for him to communicate with his ship.  The Doctor sighed and bit out, “I need the garden. Please.” A door materialized across the corridor. He hurried to it, sending a mental message of  _ hide me for a bit. _  The Doctor entered the room and the door closed behind him.

 

****

 

Out in the corridor, Rose looked left and right, trying to get a feel of where the Doctor might be.  She was met with the mental image of that same door that had shut her out of the dream. Rose let out a frustrated growl.  “So what now? Tea and waiting?”

 

The TARDIS brushed her mind soothingly.  Rose had a mental picture of tea on a tray with two mugs.  “Take him tea?” The lights in the corridor brightened briefly and the galley door appeared before her.  She poked her head inside to see tea already brewed and waiting with his dark blue mug and her pink and yellow rose printed one next to it, along with a container of milk and some sugar cubes.  Rose went to pick it up and the tray disappeared. “Okay, now is not the time to have a laugh, Old Girl,” she said to the wall, trying to be patient. The galley lights went off, and, rolling her eyes, Rose stepped out into the lit corridor.  She was about to speak again, less patiently, when a green door appeared across from their room. It was beautiful, carved with a scene of grass and trees. “New room?” Rose asked. The door swung open and Rose entered.

 

The room on the other side was unlike anything Rose had ever seen before on the TARDIS. 

 

It was gorgeous.  The grass was red-orange and the trees had silver leaves. In the artificial sunlight the leaves reflected the color of the grass.  A breeze blew and the foliage moved gently, making the trees look like they were topped with fire. The sky was orange as well. A word popped into her head,  _ Gallifrey. _ Rose understood where she was, or at least what this was a replica of. Goosebumps appeared on her arms at the realization.

 

Rose looked around, her eyes falling onto a small alcove.  There were yellow roses tipped with pink edges. The petals were iridescent, catching the sunlight and sparkling. The plant was surrounded by a stone wall. The wall had the Doctor’s circular writing etched into it. The writing shimmered, the reformed into English letters spelling an unfamiliar word,  _ Arkytior.  _  The TARDIS had never translated Gallifreyan writing for her, and she sent her beloved time ship a telepathic wave of gratitude.

 

Tears stung her eyes as she realized that the Doctor had made a shrine in his garden. There was a stone bench by it, and Rose could imagine the Doctor sitting there staring at the flowers.  It broke her heart to think of it. She touched the wall gently.

 

The tray with the tea was set on the bench.  Rose knew she had been led there on purpose, to that spot.  The TARDIS has wanted her to see it. Sparing one more look at the roses, she picked up the tray and began to walk down the dirt path toward a large field of red-orange grass and yellow wildflowers.  

 

It didn’t take her long to find the Doctor.  He’d located some clothes somewhere, she noticed.  He wore a Henley and a pair of brown pinstriped pajama bottoms, and he was laying back in the grass with his arms behind his head.  Rose was stricken with the realization that the Doctor had likely lain in the grass like that as a boy on Gallifrey. She wished she could have seen what he looked like then.   _ Completely different, no doubt.  _ She pictured a little boy, with Jenny’s shade of blonde hair, resting in the grass with his eyes closed, dreaming of the places he’d like to go.   _ Wonder if he’d dreamed about taking a TARDIS even back then? _

 

“It had crossed my mind a couple of times,” the Doctor answered, his eyes still closed.  “But mainly I was thinking of how clever I was, skipping out on my chores.” He sat up to look back at Rose.  “Tea?”

 

“Cures everything,” Rose commented.

 

“If only we had your mum’s tea.  Now there’s a cure-all,” he countered.

 

“Well, since we don’t have that, we’ll make do with what we have.  Sound good?” 

 

The Doctor nodded with a small smile, and Rose sat in the grass, placing the tray between them.  He was silent as he poured each of them some tea. Rose watched in amusement as the Doctor splashed milk in his tea, then followed that up with his usual ridiculous amount of sugar cubes.  She fixed her tea the way she liked it and blew across the top of the mug to cool it. 

 

“You had me mostly pictured right as a boy,” the Doctor murmured.  “Although...I’m surprised I still remember what I looked like back so long ago, after so many faces.  I did have blonde hair. And I always wished….”

 

“....It was ginger,” Rose finished for him, giving him a tongue touched smile.  The Doctor chuckled, putting down his tea. He leaned over to kiss Rose’s temple.  

 

“You know me so well,” he observed.  

 

“Not as well as I’d like, I’m afraid.  There’s still a lot to learn about you.  Like this room. It’s your planet, isn’t it?  It’s Gallifrey.”

 

“Yes, it’s my Gallifrey Garden,” he revealed. “The TARDIS made it for me after….a rough adventure with Jack and Martha.”  He looked away from her when he continued, “Our Old Girl needed extensive repairs when it was all over. After she rested for a while….she gifted me with this.  I didn’t deserve it after what she was put through...but she did it anyway.”

 

Rose sensed that he wished to block that memory, possibly even more than the memory of whatever happened to him on that transport.  “She loves you,” Rose told him simply. She moved the tray out of the way so she could get closer to him. She scooted over until they sat, hip to hip with her hand in his and her head on his shoulder.  They stayed that way for a while, in silence. Finally, Rose murmured, “What happened? I mean...back in our room when you were sleeping.”

 

“Just a bad dream, Rose. I would’ve awakened on my own.  You didn’t have to...and you really shouldn’t have……”

 

“I needed to help you.  You weren’t waking up. It scared me.”

 

The Doctor sighed, still not looking her in the eye.  “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry….but you really shouldn’t go mucking about in my mind uninvited.  On Gallifrey it would be considered a breach of etiquette to do such a thing.” 

 

Rose sat up straighter, placing her hand on his cheek and turning his face to hers. She said firmly,  “For one thing, you never told me that when we bonded.” He opened his mouth to speak but she continued on.  “For another, you were in distress, and I wanted to help you, because I’m your wife, and it’s what I do. If I needed help, I hope you’d barge right in.  In fact, you have my permission to. Now. What was going on? You were dreaming of something that happened, I know that much.”

 

“How would you know that?  You weren’t there.”

 

“Actually, Doctor, I was.  For a second, I got a transmission through to you, but your back was turned away.  You were on some kind of transport. Wasn’t a spaceship. It looked like you were with humans.  Angry lookin’ lot.”

 

The Doctor’s eyes were wide with shock.   _ What would have happened if she’d seen more?  _  The thought of her actually witnessing that horror was almost too much to bear and he had to turn away again.  He felt tears stinging his eyes. “I was on a tour bus to the sapphire waterfall on the planet Midnight. A pleasure planet.  I took Donna there for some down time. She’d just lost Lee in the Library, and I thought I’d lost Jenny on Messaline. That’s where we were just before we tried to have some other downtime on Alohalarexia.”

 

“I’d say the pair of you have dodgy luck with holidays,” Rose said with a rueful chuckle.  

 

“Our luck got better,” the Doctor murmured, pressing a kiss to her hair, then to her neck.

 

Before he could completely distract her, Rose prompted, “What happened on Midnight?”

 

Knowing that she wouldn’t be deterred, the Doctor took a deep breath and began to tell her.  He described Sky Silvestry and Dee Dee and the family with the sullen teenager. He told her from the beginning, about meeting these humans on a tour bus, and how the bus broke down, and how everything went to hell after that.  Rose shuddered as the Doctor recalled Sky first repeating everything, then learning and finally being able to speak before they could. His voice shook telling her of the creeping coldness in his mind, which felt like a damp fog rolling in, stealing his voice and mind, leaving him mute.  Rose cried quietly as he told her how the humans on the bus eventually turned on him, and the brave self-sacrifice of the Hostess.

 

“Nobody knew her name. I didn’t even take the time to learn it.  And I always ask. I don’t know why I didn’t this time,” he confessed, his voice thick with emotion.  “I was so ashamed of them, and of myself for that.”

 

“It seems like the humans were as monstrous as that entity,” Rose told him.  “They were awfully quick to turn on you.”

 

“You know what I kept thinking...well, while I still could think?  _ Rose would know what to do.  Rose would’ve asked her name…. _ but all the while I was just so grateful you weren’t there to see it.  I was so grateful that the entity didn’t take your mind. I wanted you there but I was so glad you weren’t there, all at the same time.  So when I dreamed about it, and there you were suddenly…”

 

“You were frightened for me.  You didn’t want me to see what was going on in your mind because it was too real, like it was happenin’ all over again.”

 

“It was my dream come true and my worst nightmare all at the same time,” the Doctor confirmed.  At this confession, Rose crawled into his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck, holding him close, feeling his body shake with tears finally shed.  She carded her fingers through the hair at the nape of his neck, projecting every bit of love and comfort within her. And he let it wash over him, finally able to let her love be a balm to soothe him. 

 

After a while she raised her head from where she’d nuzzled into his neck and said,  “M’sorry I didn’t follow the telepathy etiquette. But I can’t be sorry that I tried to help you.  I always will try, my Doctor.”

 

“I love you, Rose Tyler.  You have nothing to be sorry for.  It’s me who should be sorry, for exposing you to the darkness in my mind.”

 

Rose expelled a huffy, exasperated breath.  “What part of ‘always will try’ did you miss?  You are the love of my life, and I want you... _ all _ of you, good and bad, forever.  Got it, husband?”

 

He gave her a small smile.  She was relieved to see the sparkle back in his eyes.  “Yes, wife.” He leaned forward and gently pressed his lips to hers. When they broke apart, he added, “But….there are memories I’d just as soon not share. At least not right now.  I’m sure there’s some that you’d rather keep hidden, from the dimension jumps.”

 

Rose looked away.  “I suppose you’re right about that.”  She briefly recalled the jump on which she’d been stabbed.  “But I would like to tell you about them, sometime. And I want to hear all about your adventures while I was gone.  Even the bad ones.”

 

The Doctor nodded in agreement. “And if I ever need help, telepathically, that is, you do what you have to do.”

 

“Same here,” she confirmed.  “Except for my memories...I wouldn’t want them tampered with.”

 

“I wouldn’t tamper with that,” he promised her.  She put her head on his shoulder again, yawning.

The Doctor chuckled.

 

“I know, I know, I should be over this whole needing-sleep thing,” Rose mumbled.

 

“I don’t think I’d know what to do if Rose Tyler didn’t get all sleepy and grumbly,” the Doctor teased fondly.  “It’s just part of who you are.”

 

“Well, good, because you’re in for an eternity of it,” Rose said through another yawn.  

 

“I’m ready for it.  Back to bed with you,” the Doctor recommended, starting to get up.  Rose tugged on his arm to stop him.

 

“Think I’d like to stay right here, Doctor.  Could we do that?” She looked up when the Doctor began to laugh.  “What?”

 

He pointed to a bundle of blankets and pillows that had appeared close to them.  “The Old Girl was ready for us.” Both of them sent a telepathic wave of gratitude to their time ship, then they stood up and began to fix up a makeshift bed in the field.  As they prepared, the TARDIS treated them to a brilliant Gallifreyan sunset sky.

 

Once they were finished they crawled under their blankets.  Rose lay with her head on the Doctor’s chest, listening to the comforting sound of his double heartbeat and the low rumble of his voice as he murmured about the constellations they were seeing.  She was nearly asleep when she recalled the flower she’d seen earlier. “Doctor...I saw that rose plant at the front of the garden, by the wall. It was gorgeous the way the light caught on the petals.”

 

The Doctor didn’t speak for a bit.  His breath had caught when she’d mentioned it.  Just when she was about to let the subject go, the Doctor murmured, “The Old Girl moved that to the front of the garden, then.  It’s normally far down down that dirt path. She wanted you to see it. It was a part of her gift to me. A place where I could sit and think about...you...and the people I’ve lost.”  

 

“There was a word on the wall.  First it was in your circular writing, but then it changed.  I could read it. Ark….”

 

“Oh, Rose.  Our TARDIS loves you so much to translate that for you,” he said, his voice breaking a bit.  He cleared his throat. “Arkytior. It was my granddaughter Susan’s Gallifreyan name. It means  _ rose,  _ so it was the TARDIS’...and my way of remembering both of you.”

 

Rose sighed, “That’s beautiful.  I’m glad you could find a way to keep us in your hearts.”  She rubbed comforting circles on his chest and they settled into a cozy silence.  “Will you be able to sleep again tonight?” she whispered.

 

The Doctor loved the feeling of Rose’s warm body snuggled up against him, and he sighed, “I think, with you right here, I will be able to get some rest.”

 

“Good.  No more nightmares,” she mumbled as she finally gave into her exhaustion, her eyes heavy.

 

The Doctor kissed the top of her head, and looked back up at the sky of his lost world. There would always be nightmares, but as long as they had each other, they could face them together. He finally rested, and there were no more bad dreams that night. 

 


End file.
